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CHAP. 51.—THE VARIOUS METHODS OF BUILDING.

The Greeks construct party-walls, resembling those of brickwork,
of hard stone or of silex, squared. This kind of stonework
is what they call "isodomon,"1 it being "pseudisodomon"2
when the wall is built of materials of unequal dimensions.
A third kind of stonework is called "emplecton,"3 the two
exteriors only being made with regularity, the rest of the
material being thrown in at random. It is necessary that
the stones should lie over one another alternately, in such a
way that the middle of one stone meets the point of junction
of the two below it; and this, too, in the middle of the wall,
if possible; but if not, at all events, at the sides. When the
middle of the wall is filled up with broken stones, the work
is known as "diatoichon."4

The reticulated5 kind of building, which is mostly in use
at Rome, is very liable to crack.6 All building should be
done by line and rule, and ought to be strictly on the perpendicular.

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